


A Fickle Thing

by Pumpkin910



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Draco Malfoy, Bisexual Harry Potter, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Quidditch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:00:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25573975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pumpkin910/pseuds/Pumpkin910
Summary: Harry has everything he’s ever wanted: great job, wonderful friends, a wife and children whom he loves with all his heart. In the chaos of organizing the 427th  Quidditch World Cup, Harry begins to re-evaluate what he needs in order to realize his deepest desires.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
Comments: 1





	A Fickle Thing

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome! First off, I do not own any rights to the HP fandom. They belong to a TERF. However, I am using their characters to write a story of my own creation. This will be a long haul, estimating 20 chapters as of right now. There will eventually be lots of smut and romance but right now we're getting introduced! Please feel free to leave comments. I plan on posting biweekly :) I do not have a beta so please excuse any mistakes!

Harry groaned as he glanced around his office. There weren’t enough tidying spells or house elves to magic away the mess he had found himself in. His desk was littered with parchment, stray quills, bottles of ink, and the leftovers from his late-as-always lunch. The walls appeared to move, covered in hundreds of news articles featuring pictures of gleeful quidditch players, bright flashing team posters, and shining plaques. The thin ministry rug under his feet, marred by unremovable ink stains, was crowded with unstable piles of books, files, and more parchment, leaving barely a path open to get to the door and the desk. Dusty shelves lined one wall, they had been filled with books long before he was made the head of the International Confederation of Wizards’ Quidditch Committee, and he was under strict instruction from Chairman Metaxas to “not even bother trying to remove them”. Supposedly the last time someone tried to get rid of them, it hadn’t gone well. Harry never got the details and he preferred not to. He was too old for office gossip. In any case, he loathed the idea of clearing the shelves and finding new materials to replace them with. At least all the old books made him look like he knew what he was doing. Secretly, he still felt he had no idea.

Harry’s office was small. His secretary, Alex, greeted him every day with a smile and a cup of tea. He had 5 employees working under him, and was anxiously awaiting the appointment of a 6th. There was simply too much work to do and not enough time to do it without at least one other set of hands. The opening ceremony was set to commence on April 12th and Harry wasn’t sure, with almost two months to go, that things wouldn’t go to shite come the day of. Interviews for his new team member were commencing downstairs and he hoped to have a suitable candidate profile in his hands by the end of the day.

No sooner was he thinking of the relief of his hopeful new employee did a memo make its way into his office, zooming to a tidy halt on top of his disaster of a desk. He sighed and picked up the crisp piece of parchment, its flattened itself out in his hands so neatly that one would think it had been ironed. The header at the top indicated that its was from the Ministry Hiring Committee. _Thank Merlin, they found somebody already._

Mr. Potter,

Henceforth, on this day, the 14th of February 2014, an appointment has been made to your

division. The appointment of Mr. Draco Malfoy will commence on the 17tth of February 2014

The recommendation of his hire was unanimous among the committee. We hope this will

be a suitable change for your department.

Sincerely,

The Ministry Hiring Committee

Harry read the memo. He read it twice. Then three times. He blinked rapidly, setting the parchment down on his desk and casting a detect magic on it. Nothing besides a simple transportation charm. _This has to be a joke. Dammit Ron._ Harry set out towards Ron’s office, dodging countless ministry officials hoping to get on his good side in exchange for tickets to the ceremonies in April. Finally he arrived at Ron’s office, knocking briefly before letting himself in.

“Ha ha ha very funny Ron,” Harry started as soon as the door swung open. Ron looked up from his desk with a puzzled look on his face.

“Are you alright there, mate?” He asked with a furrowed brow.

“The memo! Genius really. How’d you get the parchment, did you bribe Perkins?”

“Harry what are you going on about?” Ron asked with concern in his voice.

“The memo! The one you sent to mess with me. Very funny Ron, but you know this stuff doesn’t work on me anymore.” Harry smirked triumphantly, holding the parchment above his head like a trophy.

“I really don’t know what you’re going on about Harry, are you feeling okay?” Ron stood up and made his was over to Harry. He slipped the parchment out of Harry’s grasps and Harry watched as his eyes skimmed the words. He took a pause before going over the words again, then again.

“wow Harry,” Ron said with a grin, “the hiring committee really does have something out for you.” He said, passing the memo back to Harry with an even bigger smirk. Harry’s face fell and his shoulders slumped.

“Ron what do you mean? Didn’t _you_ send me this bogus letter?” Ron only laughed as realization hit Harry like a hippogriff. _No. It can’t bee._ The hiring committee really did seem to have it out for him. First James, the idiot who Harry was convinced wouldn’t be able to spell his name right even if his life depended on it. Then there was Jessica, a meek little thing who couldn’t seem to complete a single task without crying. Now this? _There’s no way this is happening_ Harry thought to himself.

“Ron I’ve gotta go fix this,” he declared as he practically ran out of the room.

Harry paused for a minute outside of the hiring committee’s office, bending over with his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He had practically sprinted across the ministry. _I have to fix this_ he thought to himself. He took a deep breath and composed himself before finally walking through the heavy wooden door.

The hiring committee secretary greeted him with a pleasant smile.

“Mr. Potter, how can I help you today?” She chirped.

“I need to see Flannery right now.” He stated in what he hoped was an authoritative voice.

“Of course, right away sir.” Reileigh moved from behind her desk and made her way to Flannery’s office. Hey appeared a moment later, shining shoes clicking on the floor under his official robes.

“Mr. Potter, so pleased to see you!” He smiled warmly. _Yeah right_ Harry thought.

Before Flannery could get another word out, Harry was spewing words at him as if he had been hexed.

“Draco Malfoy? Working in my department? Are you serious Flannery? I didn’t bring up a single thing when you hired that Jessica girl, I even didn’t say anything when you sent me that miserable excuse of a person James. But _Malfoy? Draco Malfoy?_ Are you utterly insane. He practically tried to kill me! He was a death eater for crying out loud. And you want him in my office handling security for the Quidditch World Cup? You have to be mental, Flannery. It’s not happening. It’s not.” Harry took a deep breath and made to start again but Flannery put up a hand in peace.

“Harry, I assure you Draco Malfoy was by far the best candidate for the job. We screened over 100 applicants. Interviewed 15. He was the only one who wasn’t here to fawn over _saviour Potter._ I promise we’re just looking out for your best interests. After all, you spoke at his hearing. You stood up for him. We rather thought you’d be pleased.”

“Just because I didn’t want to see him in Azkaban doesn’t mean I want to look at his face every day!”

“Mr. Potter I’m sorry but he’s already been notified. In six weeks you’re free to do an employee review. If he isn’t up to your standards we will be happy to revisit the decision.” Flannery’s words had an absolute finality to them and Harry sighed with the realization that this wasn’t going to be easy to get out of. Even if he gave Malfoy a terrible review, they would insist on training and mentoring before letting him go. _Shite. Merlin’s bloody tain-_ His string of internal curses was interrupted.

“If you don’t mind Mr. Potter I have a meeting in 10 minutes. I must not be late.

“Of course, Mr. Flannery,” Harry resigned. _Shite._

By the end of the day, Harry still had not come to terms with this situation. Hermione and Ron had laughed so hard Harry was almost inclined to hex the both of them. He had spent the rest of the day pacing and muttering cleaning spells at the hopeless piles of un-filed parchment. He wasn’t looking forward to the reaction of Ginny, who had Ron’s sense of humor and no doubt would find this exceedingly hilarious. Harry folded up the memo and trudged into the flow, accepting that the universe saw his life as a joke.

“Draco Malfoy?!” Ginny exclaimed with a burst of laughter. She was uncontrollable, sinking to her knees on the floor, shaking and shoulders heaving as she reviled in Harry’s latest unfortunate event. He contemplated banging his head against the wall as another peal of laughter erupted from the redhead rolling on the floor. _Fuck. My. Life._ Harry thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose. James ran in, staring at his mom and dad for a moment before joining her on the floor, laughing with no idea why. Harry couldn’t help but smirk. James’ antics never failed to make his day brighter. Soon, Ginny calmed down enough to stand and Harry swatted her on the arse as she giggled her way to the kitchen to prepare dinner. He had until Monday. Monday was the day Malfoy was set to show up and ruin Harry’s life. _There must be an ulterior motive_ after all how could there not be? It was _Malfoy_ after all. There was always a plan in his tiny ferret mind. Whatever it was, Harry was going to figure it out. He spent the weekend devising ways of catching Malfoy in traps, vowing not to let him get the best of him. After all, this was _his_ job. _His_ work. _His_ place. A Malfoy-free place. And soon enough it would be again. Harry just had to catch him doing, well, whatever it is he planned to do.

Monday came all too fast, and Harry found himself standing in a toilet pondering what his life had become. He was about to greet Malfoy of all people, invite him into his place of work. It was absurd.

At 9:00 on the dot, Malfoy showed up. Harry heard him talking to Alex through his open office door and groaned internally. He was not ready for this. He made a last ditch effort to make his desk look somewhat neat, the last few bits and baubles falling into place as Malfoy walked through the door.

All at once Harry felt like the oxygen had been ripped out of the room by some unseeable force. He gasped, looking up at the man before him. _This was not the Malfoy he knew_. This Malfoy stood tall and proud, yes, but no look of arrogance or spite crossed his face. Rather, an almost pleasant smile rested where a smirk or a scowl should be. He wore sleek black robes, impeccably tailored. His shoulder length hair fell elegantly around his sharp face, and an earring glinted from between the strands. His face was slightly flushed but confident nonetheless. He held in his hands a box of what Harry assumed were desk supplies. A gold band shone on his left hand. This Malfoy looked, almost professional. Purposeful. Harry breathed as calmly as he could as he took in the sight. Malfoy was standing in his office. In front of him. No sign of malice on his face. No hexes were being thrown. A different Malfoy even from the one at the trials. That Malfoy had been meek, humble. This was an entirely new side that Harry had never seen before. His heart thudded and he hoped no one else could hear it. Harry cleared his throat.

“Malfoy, do come in.” He said. _Good job, Harry_ he complimented himself. He sounded calm, put together. Maybe his acting skills had improved after all.

“Potter” Malfoy greeted with a nod. Alex glanced back and forth between the two of them, clearly anticipating something. The strained relationship between Harry and Draco was no secret, even though it had been years. Harry cleared his throat, remembering himself and his job.

“Malfoy, Alex can show you to your desk. After you get settled please return, I’ll get you briefed on your tasks. We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it. Opening ceremonies are coming up fast.” Malfoy nodded and turned, his robes swishing.

Once the door closed, Harry took a deep breath and leaned up against his desk. Maybe this would work. _Just maybe._

The peace lasted for about 5 minutes.

“Bloody hell, Potter. How do you even expect to get all this shite done before the opening ceremonies? First off this place is a mess…”

Harry tried to cut in and failed.

“…next off there’s about 800 things you haven’t even started on and we can’t possibly hold any ceremonies without first getting them all done. No wonder why they hired me. Someone has to get this place in shape.”

Harry rolled his eyes. _New Malfoy my arse._

“Malfoy relax. We have time.”

“Yes, about 2 months. Which is not nearly enough.” With that, Malfoy took it upon himself to begin rifling through the papers littering Harry’s office, murmuring to himself in frustration. It was going to be a long couple of months.


End file.
